The Vatican launched an online survey at the end of July. Almost 9,000 participants were asked about their attitude towards “synodality,” and around 90 percent voted negatively. As a result, the synod secretariat responsible ended the survey prematurely and took the results offline. Apart from the Vatican, comparable “principles” of opinion polling can probably only be found in Russia and China today.
This process would remain an insignificant anecdote were it not for the fact that the final part of the so-called “World Synod” begins in less than a month, which deals with the question of how the Catholic Church can become a “synodal church.” Against this backdrop, the online survey is exceptionally explosive. But what does it actually say?
One important result is that obviously nobody in the Catholic world is interested in a “synodal church.” The number of participants in international surveys is usually much higher, especially when it comes to comparably polarizing topics. In other words: for the majority of Catholics, “synodality” is not just a lame horse, but a dead horse.
An even more important result is: Nobody in the Vatican would have expected a negative vote.
They were counting on great approval and would have liked to instrumentalize it accordingly at the “World Synod,” which incidentally brings us back to Russia and China. This is actually an astonishing approach when you consider that the creators of the synod – the Pope and Cardinals Jean-Claude Hollerich and Mario Grech – always emphasize that “synodality” should not be a political but a spiritual instrument.
If this were true, however, one would hardly resort to the means of a survey. Even less so, would one try to sabotage this survey and sweep it under the carpet after it has not delivered the desired results?
Long story short: the online survey has exposed the Pope’s pet project as a gigantic lie. And it has embarrassed Francis, Hollerich, and Grech in front of the eyes of the world public.
No, “synodality” is not a “spiritual” process but a church-political program. What’s more, this program is by no means intended to “reform” the Church but to destroy it in the long term. The survey participants recognized this and therefore clearly said “no.”
However, the real explosiveness of the survey comes from an indirect statement. And, poignantly, it is aimed at the Pope.
As is well known, Francis has interwoven his pontificate with the topic of “synodality”; he is therefore all too happy to point out that the Church must “convert” to “synodality.”
It is clear that this is absurd: the Church never has to convert to the personal ideas of a pope and certainly not to his church policy program.
Its only conversion is conversion to Jesus Christ. However, the “World Synod” is a long way from this.
The “no” of the online survey therefore contains a greater “no” than just a “no” to “synodality”; it contains a “no” to Francis and thus to a pontificate that has deeply shaken and divided the Church.
Opinions are therefore divided on the attitude to “synodality”: anyone who wants to hold on to the faith of the Catholic Church must inevitably reject the Pope’s pet project. It is not possible to remain Catholic and at the same time support the “reformatory” aims of the Pope and the “World Synod.”
I would therefore like to recommend this to my readers: Join the participants in the online survey and say firmly: “No, Holy Father!”
